have had ideas of sanctity connected with it, but it is of course in connection with the Prophets Elijah and Elisha that it attained to its chief celebrity. In early Christian times, numberless hermits took up their abode in caves and solitary cells on and about this mountain. Subsequently, a monastery arose here, and became of considerable reputation. When Napoleon was besieging Acre, this monastery was utilized as an hospital for the wounded. When the French retreated the building was destroyed by the Pasha. Some time after, a monk named Jean Battista, who had taken vows as an act of penance, came on pilgrimage to Carmel, and found only an altar and an archway. He vowed to rebuild the Convent, travelled and begged for fourteen years, and the present edifice is the result of his labours.

The Convent is said to be erected over the cave in which Elijah sought shelter when Ahab was seeking his life. At a little distance down the mountain side is a larger cave, called the "Cave of the Prophets," alleged to be the one alluded to by Obadiah, when he said to Elijah, "Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the Prophets of the Lord, how I hid an hundred men of the Lord's prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water?"

The opening to the first of these caves is under the high altar in the church. The monks assert that there has been a continuity of religious guardians to this mountain since. the time of Elijah-that the sons of the prophets dwelt there until the time of Our Saviour, and then embraced Christianity. Certainly the sanctuary here is mentioned by classical writers-both Pythagoras and Tacitus visited it. In the church the visitor will observe a modern monument, erected to commemorate the burial here, in 1864, of Edward Henry Etienne, Prince de Craon.

In Joshua xix. 26, Carmel is assigned to the tribe of

Asher, who also held a portion of the rich agricultural plain of Sharon, to the south of Carmel. We read previously in chap. xii. of a king of "Jokneam of Carmel," as being defeated by the Israelites. But the chief biblical associations

of Carmel are with the history of Elijah and Elisha.

At the eastern end of the ridge, where the view extends over the great plain, doubtless occurred the extraordinary events related in 1 Kings xviii.

"We stopped at El Mouhrakah," says M. de Pressensé, "situated on the mountain at five-and-a-half hours' distance from the convent. This is the spot marked by tradition for Elijah's sacrifice. El Mouhrakah is a natural terrace, commanding all the Plain of Esdraelon. Enormous blocks of stone strew the path. The site answers exactly to the account given in the book of Kings (1 Kings xviii. 20). Behind us is the great sea from which the Prophet saw the little cloud, like a man's hand, arise, which was to spread over all the scorched land and pour a healing rain. The Kishon, reddened with the blood of the priests of Baal after their shameful defeat, flows through the plain at the foot of Carmel. Before us is Jezreel, to which the king repaired in his chariot on the prophetic announcement of the coming miracle. The horizon of mountains is very extensive from this height, and forms a graceful curve, commencing with the mountains of Samaria, and terminating in the furthest hills of Galilee. Tabor fronts the spectator; it looks like the rounded dome of a Byzantine basilica formed by nature. The Plain of Esdraelon unfolds its dazzling robe between Tabor and Carmel, while on the side of the sea the plain which reaches to Jaffa and the Mediterranean melts into shining distance. Around us, Carmel extends in all directions, its green groves and flowery slopes."

Another startling incident in the life of Elijah is con

nected with this mountain. In 2 Kings i. we find Ahaziah, in the time of sickness, sending to enquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, "whether I shall recover of this disease?" But the messengers are intercepted by "an hairy man, girt with a girdle of leather about his loins," who indignantly asks, "Is there not a God in Israel?" and sends word to the king, "Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die." The enraged monarch knows it must be "Elijah the Tishbite," and twice sends a "captain of fifty, with his fifty," to capture the prophet. These, seeking to carry out the royal mandate, are destroyed "by fire from heaven" at the word of the prophet, who calmly surveys them from his place on the top of an hill. A third captain is sent with his band. These approach the prophet in terms of humble solicitation. He consents to accompany them, but only to reiterate his former message to Ahaziah. "So he died according to the word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken, and Jehoram reigned in his stead."

After Elisha with wondering eyes had seen his master pass to heaven in the "chariot of fire," he visited Jericho and Bethel, and then came to Mount Carmel (2 Kings ii. 25) for a time. When the Shunamite mother, grieving over her only son's death, sought Elisha in her trouble, she 66 came unto the man of God, to Mount Carmel," and from the eminence he saw her afar off." It needs not to relate here the sequel of the story.

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"Carmel figures as frequently as Lebanon in the oracles of the prophets. When Esaias will paint the beauty of Paradise Regained, he says that the "desert shall blossom as the rose the glory of Lebanon shall be given to it; the excellency of Carmel and of Sharon" (Isaiah xxxv. 2). He describes this "excellency of Carmel" in another passage,

which one cannot read without being transported to the mountain of Elias. "The mountains and the hills," saith he, “shall break forth before you into singing. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree; and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree" (Isaiah lv. 12, 13).

The spouse of the Canticles is compared in her beauty, full of glory and majesty, to the summit so much admired. "Thine head upon thee, is like Carmel," says her wellbeloved (Song of Solomon vii. 6). When Isaiah seeks to

Finally it was here, contest was enacted

draw the most pathetic picture of the desolation of the land, he exclaims, "Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits " (are withered away) (Isaiah xxxiii. 9). "The top of Carmel shall wither," says Amos (chap. i. 2). as we have seen, that the sublime between the worshippers of Jehovah and Baal, the god of the heights. Carmel is also a spot consecrated in Asiatic paganism. Tacitus asserts that the mountain itself was an object of worship. (Montem deumque vocant) (Hist. ii. 78). The oracle which promised the empire to Vespasian, is said by the great historian to have resounded from the summit of this august mountain. It is into these retreats that Micah calls together the dispersed but repentant flock of Israel (Micah vii. 14).

"When the unknown author of the Requiem will sum up in one word all the glory of ancient prophecy, he says, "Gloria Carmelis."-(Pressensé.)

HAIFA TO 'AKKA.

This is a ten mile journey along the beach, or if the weather is fine a sailing boat may be hired to do the distance. The views of Carmel on looking back are very fine. After crossing that "ancient river, the river Kishon," the traveller enters the great Plain of Acre. The N'amân, ancient Belus,

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is afterwards crossed, and a hill is seen to the right where Napoleon planted his batteries when besieging Acre in 1799. During the journey the traveller should notice the beautiful shells which are abundant on the beach. Amongst these specimens of the murex, from which the Tyrians extracted their far-famed purple dye, may be found.

'AKKA OR ACRE.

'Akka, otherwise Accho, Ptolemais, or Acre, or St. Jean d'Acre, is an important seaport town. The fortifications are very fine. It contains 5000 inhabitants, of whom about 700 are Christians. It stands on the projecting headland which forms the northern boundary of the bay, which curves round from Mount Carmel in the south. Round Acre there is a fertile plain about six miles broad, watered by the Nahr N'amân (ancient Belus). The hills which northward approach the sea skirt round this plain, and towards the south recede yet farther inland towards Sepphoris. Acre, from its favourable situation as regards both sea and land approaches, has been called the "Key of Palestine."

Accho was allotted to Asher but never conquered (Judges i. 31), and was commonly reckoned a Phoenician city. The town is not again mentioned in the Old Testament. Under the Ptolemies, to whom Phoenicia came at the death of Alexander, it became important, and was called Ptolemais. Antiochus the Great subsequently seized the city, and attached it to his Syrian dominions; it figured also in the wars of the Maccabees. It afterwards became a free town, and then a Roman colony. It is once mentioned in the New Testament in connection with St. Paul's journey from Tyre to Cæsarea (Acts xxi. 7).

Acre was a noted place in the crusading times. It was